Saturday

This spot has been running pretty heavily in North America over the last few weeks. For all the wireless and mobile work out there that's pretty easy to forget (and FFWD through without feeling like you want to actually stop and watch), this 60 hits the mark.

I got an invite to Google Wave about a week ago and I've been playing with it for the past few days. At first, I was really into it. I liked the instant(ness) to it, the ability to comment on specific aspects of chats, to integrate videos and maps into a stream, etc. I liked being able to edit friends comments and see what they edited. I was hooked, interested and mostly happy to be one of the 'privelaged' few (ie. 1,000,000 or so) to get 'early' access to the product.

That's what I love about Google in general. Exclusive invites that are rolled out randomly to a few hundred thousand and then slowly distributed to more and more people. It's a brilliant strategy:

1. Come up with a new product (I know...pretty basic thought)

2. Create a (longwinded) demo and launch the product to your most loyal base

3. Set a start date for when the product will go out in beta

4. Let people sign up to have the chance to be one of the first to experience it

5. Distribute invites to about 100,000 or so and slowly roll your product out

6. Launch (whenever you feel like it)

Love the strategy. As for Google Wave, to be honest, after the initial 'I feel so cool to have an invite' phase, it's starting to wear off on me.

From across the pond in the UK, Orange has lauched a nice experience to promote the new Motorola DEXT. The site lets users login using Facebook Connect, Twitter and MySpace and asks them 10 questions about their friends. It's quite straightforward but I like how the questions really make you think.

For the record, I only scored 3 out of 10 (pretty awful, looks like I don't need the device). But still, test it out. Very simple and well developed.

The Gunn report was released last week and contains all the 'top' ranked work from the year (as well as the most awarded campaigns, agencies and networks). While I think that most award shows are simply gatherings to collectively pat one another on the back and talk about how great we all are, I think that the report nailed the fact that this Crest campaign truly created some good, global impact. A really nice idea, well executed. Check out the spots here:

Listen. I'm all for nice spots. I like it when creatives come up with ideas that cost about $1 million to shoot. If they're great, people won't PVR them. They'll get posted to YouTube and get a couple of hundred thousand free views. Nice right?

But sometimes the creatives might be a bit off. And they might be really, really good at selling clients on their idea. Sure, it sounds nice in theory but in reality? It's just that. Nice. And totally unrelated to the brand.

Props to the production team that put this together. But to the clients and agency that sold this? Two thumbs down.

In an industry whose ad revenues continue to decline in record levels, The Economist has stood out as a magazine that maintains a feverishly loyal readership (I'm one of them) as well as a brand that has differentiated itself from all competitors. A magazine not for the common man, but one who strives to know more about worlds beyond his own.

My favorite part? The idea that if you don't read anything - no newspapers, no dailies, no blog posts or updates. If you only sat down for 3 hours every Sunday and read the latest issue of the Economist, I guarantee you that you'd be more 'in the know' and worldly than 99% of people that you meet.

It's been a tough year for agencies. Revenue's have been down, layoffs have been rampant and clients are thinking about making jumps in the new year. This isn't to say that there hasn't been good work done - their certainly has - but things haven't been easy.

There's a common saying in our industry that almost any agency is only two phone calls away from shutting their doors. It's a scary thought (and one that some of the mega-ones can handle) but it's true. Every client interaction, presentation, creative idea and brief might be one of the last for that particular relationship. Make it count.

Alright I admit it, I've been behind. Call it work, call it being 'busy', but the fact of the matter is, Crowe has been holding AdJoke down for the past few weeks. So tonight I've decided to go for it. Quantity over thought out posts. My favorite stuff from the ad world from the last 14 days. Hope you enjoy and thanks for being patient (and reading!).

The ad business isn't easy. Long hours, shitty briefs, limited budgets, risk adverses clients, prescriptive feedback and clients that think they are art directors and copywriters usually take-over and take some of the fun out of the business. But, every now and then a client buys something FUN. Every now and then creative teams get an opportunity to sell that one spot that keeps them sane and allows them to pump out all the other crap they are asked to work on for the next 16 months.

It is a great idea that will get people talking, blogging and sharing the Toshiba brand.

Sunday

The intersection of architecture, art, technology and communications will be the future of out-of-home advertising in my personal opinion.

Here is an example of how a projector, architecture and a great idea can capture the attention of people while being aesthetically pleasing and adding value to the archtecture itself. Point being, everyone wins.

Now find a way to effectively integrate a brand message into this experience without ruining it and you too can win.

Here is another example of a brand that has chosen to make a high-quality film for online consumption to launch a brand. The Row is the clothing line with the billionaire Full House twins behind it.

I enjoyed the video, even though I am far from the target audience. It showcased a large line of clothing in a interesting way while identifying the lines' versatility and creating a brand statement through the music, setting, casting and direction.

The release of the N900 brings us another product where the brand is asking for their community to get involved and co-create. The difference here is that they acknowledge that not everyone will want to participate in this project so the user experience allows visitors to quickly jump to the exact information, opportunity and depth of brand engagement they are looking for. The options are buy, participate and discover.

The landing page features the 2+ minute video I've embedded below, minimal copy and then the 3 CTA's that launch you into 3 very different experiences.

The video is so good that it could justify it's own post. It will definitely do its job of creating awareness, driving interest and intrigue and getting consumers of all types to the site. It is at this stage that the site takes over.

Perfect site experiences once you leap off the landing page...no. But a strong digital experience has been delivered. Well done.

PS - another great example that obviously didn't start with a brief to the "mass team" on a TV spot, but with a brief to team that considered the digital experience and created a campaign.

Almost every time I am surfing the web I stumble across a bad media placement that makes me shake my head. Yes, it is true that generally speaking this is out of everyone's control, but nonetheless it is an unfortunate situation that media companies need to get better at avoiding.

When the Weather Network site loaded up the first thing I noticed was the face od the child in the big box and then I read that sad copy telling me that 2 Million kids will die this year. What did I read next? Well Wendy's telling me "You know when it's true". The placement at a glance made it look like Wendy's was sponsoring the message.